Fall 2023 Haute Couture: Franck Sorbier's Collages
Franck Sorbier is a poet. One attending his show has come to expect a whimsical display of creativity and this season the Grand Couturier did not disappoint. Eschewing a runaway presentation, Sorbier invited young performers to take over the Musée National Jean-Jacques Henner.
Outside the venue, guests were welcomed by a rock ‘n roll ballerina and a knight on a beautiful steed. Inside, guests could explore the museum and as they moved from room to room, they found live musicians with dancers dressed with the stars of his Haute Couture Fall Winter 2023-2024 collection: oversized coats with sleeves richly embroidered.
The designer took inspiration from the rich history of the caftan and reinterpreted the garment with each piece paying tribute to artistic movements such as Dadaism, Surrealism, Soviet Constructivism, and the German Bauhaus.
On a black wool background, Sorbier applied a playful universe of colored and fluorescent silk sable, graffities, sixties cross-stitch tapestries re-embroidered with mother-of-pearl buttons and flower embroideries.
The collection was appropriately named Collage, a reference to the multiple applications and layering of fabrics and embroideries. The caftan “Christus Sanctus Spiritus” showcased a “Byzantine Christ” tapestry, gold and silver embroidered birds, taken from antique Japanese kimonos and gold floral branches on black silk and viscose velvet. While the “New Revolution” caftan showed cut, woven and frayed photographic negative portraits on natural white silk sable.
